ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli to talk science in Dublin tomorrow

16 Nov 2012

Astronaut Paolo Nespoli in Dublin with Rory Howe and Robert Mongey

Paolo Nespoli, an astronaut with the European Space Agency (ESA) who has made two trips into space, will be giving a lecture in Dublin tomorrow as part of the Science Week celebrations.

The astronaut, who works with the ESA, will be giving a talk at the Little Museum of Dublin between 12pm and 1pm tomorrow to coincide with Science Week, which comes to a close on Sunday.

This year’s Science Week has been co-ordinated by Discover Science & Engineering, an initiative that’s managed by Science Foundation Ireland. More than 600 events have been taking place in schools, colleges, museums and libraries this week to celebrate and promote more of an interest in science.

Nespoli first went into space in 2007 aboard the space shuttle Discovery and again in 2010 during a spaceflight to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft.

On his second trip, he spent 159 days in space. While he was docked at the ISS, Nespoli’s work as a flight engineer involved carrying out more than 30 scientific experiments and technology demonstrations. He also made films with ESA’s novel 3D camera to show the space station in a new way.

Carmel Doyle was a long-time reporter with Silicon Republic

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